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One of the many UK governments worries is its disappearing workforce. Since the end of Covid, 500,000 people, have not returned to work. The UK Treasury estimate that more than half of those (317,000) are in the age range 50-64. They are neither employed nor registered for unemployment; they have simply given up. This is a multi-layered problem. Their inactivity fuels inflation causes labour shortages, particularly in crucial skill sets, and inhibits growth. It is reported that at an organisational level, impacts that can be felt include: increased recruitment and training costs, loss of efficiency, lowered morale and overall lower productivity. “The U.K. is really quite unique among rich countries in having
had a persistent fall in the size of its workforce after the pandemic,” said
Xiaowei Xu, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies think
tank. There is the search for the reasons why. The UK Office for National Statistics notes that of those who have left the workforce over the age of 50, 66 % owned their homes outright. And 61% with debt free. They were also confident or very confident that their retirement provisions would meet their needs. The reasons identified in the various survey seem to focus on negative reasons such as ill-health, inflexible working hours and poor lifestyle. But behind that, there may be a subtle but growing change in older people's aspirations. The old retirement model of executive team retirement to the golf course may be withering away! The social entrepreneur Mark Friedman identified the notion of the "encore career" some time ago. He recognised a growing aspiration for "work in the second half of life that combines continued income, greater personal meaning and social impact." Research in 2011 in the USA indicated that nearly 47% of Americans aged 40– 70 would regard an encore career as desirable. There are many examples of people who have taken this step. Bill Gates probably being the highest profile. The leadership question in all this is how an organisation taps into this change of aspiration regarding the people they already employ and those with the wisdom, skills and experience they would find very useful. This also begs a broader question: Are we seeing the more substantial emergence of the need for leaders who are as passionate about leading in a community of contributors as leading a team?
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